I recently had a small discussion with the mod author of Delete Empty Chunks (https://mods.factorio.com/mod/DeleteEmptyChunks/discussion/5cac8d6404a7bf000b64e8f7) and did some testing (https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?f=92&t=58658#p421784)

I was wondering if there could be a way to have these two mods behave together more reliably. DEC won't delete things created by WSF, and destroying a factory (then deleting the chunk) won't let new factories appear in the area. Strath said that your mod saves a list of spawned locations even if those chunks are subsequently deleted. If that's true, I guess being able to manipulate that list in some way would be nice. Or, let DEC wipeout big factories, then let those areas repopulate as though generated for the first time.

I like to explore very very far from spawn to setup my base, but all those WSF things along the way which I don't intend to use create overhead in the save file.

Empty chunks with nothing in them don't create overhead. They're shut down.

If DEC clears the chunks, they should just remove the revealed map, and you wouldn't know otherwise.

Idle chunks don't do anything.

Correct, I don't currently do anything to either support the DEC mod or even support or tested with generally deleting chunks, but how you described it is how I'd expect it to behave.

@PiggyWisky: I wouldn't be surprised if you're close right in terms of runtime CPU (at least for biter free worlds), but I think DEC still has significant impact on save file size, which I think empty chunks can still play a big role in. And having played games where saving takes 30+ seconds, it can be a big thing.

I think I can do some saving of positions and then everytime a new chunk checks I'd check it against a list of archived buildings when new chunks are spawned to see if there are buildings I need to respawn. I can probably ignore respawning recipe or rotation information, but it'll still take a bit of work and I need to put it lower on my priority list as I have a few other features that people keep bugging me for that I haven't gotten around to implementing.

Thank you for your consideration, and your right, its not a big priority or anything. But yes, I was referring to save file size, I realize inactive chunks hibernate